


then you come crashing in

by sapphfics



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Silk (Comics), Spider-Man (Comicverse), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Femslash, Neighbours, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-10-29 13:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20797211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphfics/pseuds/sapphfics
Summary: Felicia doesn’t want redemption.She is a thief, and Cindy is a hero, and they should not be doing this. Cindy knows this, and she knows that she, especially, shouldn’t be doing this, but she stopped listening to the voice in her head a long time ago. Or at least, she tries. She tries so hard.





	then you come crashing in

**Author's Note:**

> happy belated birthday shan!! <3333

_You who never arrived in my arms, beloved,_  
_ Who were lost from the start,_  
_ I don't even know what songs would please you._

\- Rilke

* * *

Cindy starts calling Black Cat by her first name.

Not to her face, obviously, because Cindy hasn’t seen her in forever. In a month, actually, but it feels like forever all the same. It’s only in her head, at first. She sort of hates herself for it, and the little voice in the back of her brain that sounds suspiciously like Bobbi Morse tells her it’s wrong, somehow, to even think of her at all. Cindy spent ten years stuck in her own head like she was trapped in that bunker and she falls back into old coping mechanisms the same that way poor Gwen Stacey fell off that bridge. She isn’t proud of it, of course, and she knows if she spoke to her family about any of this they would listen, but…

The truth is, Cindy misses her. It’s hard to explain. At least the time with her gave her a purpose, gave her an excuse to leave her flat, made her feel like she was worth something. It’s not the way she misses her ex boyfriend/ghost superhero, not the way she misses her life before the bunker. It’s different. An ache, like someone cut a hole in her and forgot to sew her up.

Which is why she chokes on her coffee one morning, when Al glances at her over his slightly burnt toast and asks “Cindy, did we always have a hot blonde neighbor who wears copious amounts of leather and I just didn’t notice?”

“W-what?” Cindy splutters. “Who?”

“Cindy,” Her father pats her back. He’s got different glasses, stronger now. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Cindy tries to reassure him. He doesn’t look convinced. “I used to work with someone who looked like that.”

“What? What work did you do?” Her mother knits her eyebrows together.

Cindy decided to stop lying to her family awhile ago, but she still lets out a sigh before she speaks.

“Long story short, I was spying on her for classified superhero business,” Cindy admits. “But she...understood me. Like no one else had. It doesn’t matter, she hates me now.”

“Did you tell them that?” Her mother asks. Cindy shakes her head. “She must matter to you a lot. You always do the right thing.”

“She did,” Cindy says. “I mean, SHIELD has a propensity to be taken over by a Nazi adjacent group called HYDRA, so I don’t make a habit of telling them everything.”

“Best not to,” her father agrees. “She can’t hate you that much, though. Besides, you don’t even know if the neighbor is her. There are other blonde women into leather, presumably.”

“True,” Cindy says, but she can’t stop thinking about it. About her. “I bet Al would know.”

Al is intrigued. “What was her name?”

Cindy wants to say Black Cat, but what comes out is: “Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat.”

“You worked with a criminal furry?” Al questions and Cindy lets herself laugh for a second and doesn’t allow herself to consider the intimacy of being on a first name basis with a crime boss.

-:-

Cindy doesn’t leave her apartment much anymore. She opens all her numerous windows and taps into the police radio, but it seems New York doesn’t need Silk as often. She keeps the costume at the back of her closet, just in case.

She’s alone in the apartment, lying on the sofa, trying to catch up on some sleep. And then, someone knocks on the door. Cindy knows that if someone were planning to murder them, they wouldn’t knock on the door, but she keeps her phone in her hand with nine and one punched in and walks towards the door. It’s probably Al and he’s forgotten his key.

It isn’t.

“Hey neighbor,” says that all too familiar voice. Felicia grins at her. It’s the first time Cindy’s seen her in anything that isn’t leather. She’s in pyjama shorts and a tank top, her hair tumbling down her back. She looks a bit like on of Al’s pin-up posters, and it makes Cindy nervous. “Can I borrow some sugar?”

“Hi,” Cindy says and smiles back. “What are you here for?”

“Have you still got your costume?” Felicia asks. Cindy nods.

And Felicia doesn’t try to kill her, shockingly, but it still takes Cindy a while to trust her in her home.

It takes even longer for her to want to leave the apartment again.

-:-

Cindy has a nightlight. She’s twenty-one and while she knows that she’s far too old for one, but the bunker only got darker at night. Sometimes, she will wake up in the dark and think she’s back there again. She thinks of it now, walking to Jameson’s office before anyone else has arrived. Compares it to Felicia. A bright light in the dark, shielding her and stifling her vision at once.

“Black Cat’s on the up and up. Hypothetically,” Cindy says as she hands Jameson a cup of coffee. It’s seven am, too early for this question really, but she has to ask it now or else she never will. “How would you feel if Silk were dating a woman? Or wanted to?”

Jameson doesn’t even blink. “I’d be very happy for her.”

-:-

It’s easy to fall in love with Felicia. Peter had made that clear.

And Felicia doesn’t want redemption.

She is a thief, and Cindy is a hero, and they should not be doing this. Cindy knows this, and she knows that she, especially, shouldn’t be doing this, but she stopped listening to the voice in her head a long time ago. Or at least, she tries. She tries so hard.

Kissing Felicia feels like freedom the way Spider-Man wanted to give her when he freed her from that bunker.

“I missed you Cindy,” Felicia whispers. “I missed you so much. We’re a good team.”

“We are,” Cindy agrees. She doesn’t let go of Felicia’s hand. She never wants to.


End file.
